In the Obama administration’s Washington, government
officials are increasingly afraid to talk to the press. Those suspected
of discussing with reporters anything that the government has
classified as secret are subject to investigation, including
lie-detector tests and scrutiny of their telephone and e-mail records.
An “Insider Threat Program” being implemented in every government
department requires all federal employees to help prevent unauthorized
disclosures of information by monitoring the behavior of their
colleagues.

Six government employees, plus two contractors including Edward
Snowden, have been subjects of felony criminal prosecutions since 2009
under the 1917 Espionage Act, accused of leaking classified information
to the press—compared with a total of three such prosecutions in all
previous U.S. administrations. Still more criminal investigations into
leaks are under way. Reporters’ phone logs and e-mails were secretly
subpoenaed and seized by the Justice Department in two of the
investigations, and a Fox News reporter was accused in an affidavit for
one of those subpoenas of being “an aider, abettor and/or conspirator”
of an indicted leak defendant, exposing him to possible prosecution for
doing his job as a journalist. In another leak case, a New York Times reporter has been ordered to testify against a defendant or go to jail.

This is definitely worth a read, especially for anyone interested in the First Amendment or State Secrets.